Public Please

For Citizens >= Government

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Entries from August 2008

Is C-Span’s Qik Experiment At The 2008 Democratic Convention A Social Media Gimmick?


By Will Riley

August 24th, 2008 · No Comments

At the 2008 Democratic Convention, C-Span has started a Qik group to directly broadcast parts of the convention in the field via video on the Qik website. The C-Span Qik group appears to be private (I tried to join it without [...]

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Tags: Participation · Transparency

Howard Dean Dodges Accusation That Some Democratic Presidents Were War Criminals


By Will Riley

August 24th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Howard Dean, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, dodged a tough accusation today from a C-Span caller that some Democratic presidents were war criminals. The C-Span caller argued that the Democratic party had previously supported presidents who were war criminals. [...]

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Tags: Accountability · Participation · Transparency

C-SPAN Video Library Versus YouTube, Vimeo, And Internet Archive


By Will Riley

August 20th, 2008 · 7 Comments

I am sad to report that the C-SPAN Video Library, a supposedly non-profit venture, is still less public than many for-profit video sharing websites, such as YouTube and Vimeo, because:

C-SPAN does not allow you to embed its videos onto your blog [...]

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Tags: Transparency

Blog Against Poverty


By Will Riley

August 18th, 2008 · No Comments

On October 15th, thousands of bloggers from around the world will be writing against poverty. At Public Please, we too, will be writing against poverty by discussing the communication breakdown between poor people and their elected representatives.

How can we improve communication [...]

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Tags: Participation

Did McCain Subvert Pastor Rick’s Cone Of Silence?


By Will Riley

August 18th, 2008 · No Comments

It appears that John McCain eavesdropped on Pastor Rick’s questions at a recent question and answer session between Pastor Rick and the presidential candidates. At MSNBC’s “Forum On The Presidency”, McCain broke the “cone of silence” he was supposed to observe [...]

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Tags: Accountability · Transparency